Bet Enthusiast

Wayne Rooney looks like playing for Chelsea on the opening day of the new Premier League season next Saturday according to bookmaker’s prices. Luis Suarez looks like leaving Liverpool but the club he joins is still not clear. Gareth Bale is slightly odds on to spend another year at Tottenham. Cesc Fabregas seems likely to stay at Barcelona at least until the end of the new season.

With 24 hour rolling sports news channels with schedules to fill soccer transfer speculation is still am important part of their output even during the close season. During a relatively quite week for summer sports the football gossip has been a major part of the news agenda. It’s 95% conjecture and 5% fact but there’s no Wimbledon tennis, Open golf or Ashes cricket to muddy the waters this week.

Some 24 news channels spent more than 12 hours showing pictures of the door to a maternity unit in Paddington on Tuesday but the sports news outlets were more concerned with which players were staying at their clubs or moving on despite the pending birth of a baby boy who apparently could become quite important in about 50 years time.

Prince Charles may abdicate and pass on the role to a younger man but that news would probably generate fewer words in the media than the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson after 27 years as manager of Manchester United. The Queen will stubbornly and rightly hang on from a sense of duty but I hope Roy Hodgeson is quicker to realise he cant quite hack it in the big job.

The Rooney transfer issue is given added spice in that it comes during the first few weeks in the job as manager of Manchester United for David Moyes. The two have fallen out in the past and any hope of reconciliation was totally dashed when Moyes basically said he thought Robin Van Persie was a better player than Rooney.

Moyes may have thought that and discussed the issue with his colleagues but a boss in any sphere surely shouldn’t be suggesting he doesn’t rate too highly a key member of staff. Rooney’s missus, Coleen, would love the shops in Knightsbridge and the trendy bars on the Kings Road so the family and the main breadwinner look like decamping to West London in the next few days.

Luis Suarez is still more likely to leave Liverpool than stay. Arsenal have made a bid of 40 million and a quid which apparently means the player has to be informed of the interest. Liverpool are looking for 50 million and would prefer to see the player move abroad. If he did join Arsenal it would make mockery of his claim that he has had enough of the British media. If that is the case Luis don’t racially abuse and bite fellow professionals.

If Rooney leaves United Moyes will be under pressure to replace him with a stellar name. Leighton Baines is a perfectly decent left back but is not the type of player to excite the Old Trafford faithful. Bale and to a lesser extent Fabreagas would keep the fans happy but how his transfer dealings pan out this summer could affect how long of his six year contact Moyes spends at United.